Yesterday VICE published a version of this story. This gives a slightly deeper socio-political context. — The rebels in eastern Ukraine are not trailblazers. In 1992 pro-Russian rebels carved out a de-facto state on a narrow strip of land between Moldova and Ukraine. Transniestria, the fledgling state of half a million people has since created its

Transniestria is a breakaway state squeezed between Moldova to the west and Ukraine to the east. When the Soviet Union was coming undone and the various republics declaring independence, Transniestria went against the grain and fought a war to stay in the Soviet Union. While no nation recognizes this fledging state (with the exception of